Boeing 787 flying only 3 weeks before battery fire

Associated Press
Joseph Kolly of the National Transportation Safety Board holds an opened damaged battery cell case from the Japan Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner that caught fire at Logan International Airport in Boston on Jan. 7, at the NTSB laboratory in Washington. In the foreground is the casing that holds eight cells of batteries. The battery that caught fire in Boston shows evidence of short-circuiting and a chemical reaction known as “thermal runaway,” in which an increase in temperature causes progressively hotter temperatures, federal accident investigators said. However, it’s not clear to investigators which came first, the short-circuiting or the thermal runaway.

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators say the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that experienced a battery fire earlier this month was delivered to Japan Airlines less than three weeks before the fire.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday in an update of its investigation of the incident that the airliner was delivered on Dec. 20. It had only recorded 169 flight hours and 22 flights when the fire erupted in one of the airliner’s two lithium ion batteries on Jan. 7.

The fire occurred at Logan International Airport shortly after the plane landed. NTSB said the battery was manufactured by GS Yuasa of Japan in September 2012.

A second battery incident led to an emergency landing by another 787 in Japan on Jan. 16. The 787 fleet worldwide has since been grounded.